Clara Mainn wasn't expecting a man with red eyes, black claws, and teeth as sharp as razors to attack in the night.
Suddenly thrown into a world of supernatural creatures, Clara is finding it hard not to question her own mental sanity. A chance enc...
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CLARA HUDDLED BEHIND a small tree in the forest quietly. She breathed short breaths as she inhaled the summer air, careful not to make too much noise with her footing or her breathing.
It had been weeks since she overheard a conversation in the forest west of Glen Meadow, between a man- or who she thought was a man, and a woman who could turn into a large brown wolf. They were arguing about someone the woman called a stupid little wolf before their personal relationship was brought up.
It was late the night she heard them bickering, and Clara normally wouldn't have gone out in the forest, but Mari, her younger sister was hungry and complaining. Clara couldn't get her to shut it, so she decidedly went out to the forest to check on the snare trap she had set prior.
Lo and behold, a rabbit was caught in the trap, but before Clara could get to it, she overheard two people talking (more like yelling), in the forest. No one usually came this far west, Clara thought at first.
Watching the scene play out, Clara watched the two argumentative individuals with curious eyes... but then, that was when she saw it.
At the end of the argument, the woman with blonde hair and a thin figure turned. She really turned into a wolf. At first, Clara was shocked and scared. Was she imagining it? She wondered.
Once the woman had run off, Clara watched the man who sat on the rock and drank for hours. She found herself lost in a trance as she studied the man's features and movements.
He was tan skinned with brown locks of hair, the tips of his ruffled hair faded to a pale white at the ends. A patch covered his left eye and he groaned every now and then, as he held his face in his hands.
He had definitely seen better days, Clara thought.
Although Clara was still reeling from what she had just seen, watching the man wallow in self pity and sadness, made her want to walk up to him and hug him. To engulf him in her arms and never let go. She couldn't deny the strange emotional attraction she felt as she watched him. Perhaps it was because he was clearly hurting. Maybe Clara saw a part of herself in him. She did not know.
Every day since that night, Clara had spent most of her time in the forest listening and waiting to see that man again. She wondered if he had powers like the blonde woman he was arguing with, or if he was like the man with red eyes and skin that cracked when he showed his fangs. Was he evil? Was she walking into a trap set by her own curiosity? Or, in some way, could the man with one eye help her? Save her from whatever wants her dead. Whatever wants her family dead.
Clara hid her mother and sister near Glen Meadow. She couldn't deny that every time she left the small clearing in the forest they now called their home, she was afraid something would happen to them while she was gone. It irked her every time she thought about the possibility that the reason why they had to flee from their cottage was her fault. Was it her fault?
Clara kept her family in the dark about what had actually happened that night. The man-creature thingy that went after Clara, had tied up her mom and sister, took them out of the house to the forest and simply left them. They didn't see his face as he kept his hood up. Clara told her mother and sister that the man was a desperate thief who was simply looting small homes in The Willow and luckily, she fought him off. It was difficult to explain how their dining room table in the cottage was torn to shreds, but Clara still managed to lie her way to some sort of victory. Truthfully, she couldn't fully wrap her head around that night herself.
Clara closed her eyes after she heard her sisters voice and when she opened them again, the man's body was gone. Almost as if he had melted into the snowy ground. Just remembering that night made Clara think that she really was losing her mind. But if it were an hallucination, she still saw it with her eyes wide open. She felt the pain as the man dug his claws into her forearm.
Glancing down, Clara ran her fingers along the round scars on her forearm and sighed. She sat down on the forest floor, the cold ground caused her to shiver. She simply sat and waited for something, someone... or a sign, anything.
Time passed and her mind began to wonder far. Like, really far. So far that she even contemplated doing everything in her power to find out who the man with one eye was. Is. Perhaps he could give her answers to her questions. The first one would be: 'Do the creatures with red eyes get along with the wolf people? Er. Umm... is that what you even call them?'.
She knew there was also a possibility that the man might kill her... Or take her to the 'den' he spoke of when he was spewing hurtful words at the shapeshifting woman.
Oh god, were there more of them? Had creatures with fangs, and creatures who turned to wolves lived in the shadows for years?
Clara decided to stop asking herself questions she knew she couldn't answer. Questions she may never be able to answer.
Just then, she snapped back to reality as she turned to see a large, white wolf twice the size of her, come out of nowhere and unknowingly walk towards where she was sitting quietly. The wolf's head lifted. He was sniffing the air for something.
